


life brings exactly the lessons you need

by moorglade



Series: An Officer and a Submissive [5]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - D/s, Cultural Differences, Dom Rodney McKay, Dom Ronon Dex, Dom Teyla Emmagan, Education, Fluff, Pre-OT4, Sub John Sheppard, Submissive-ist attitudes in a D/s universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 17:55:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6530128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moorglade/pseuds/moorglade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which the educational opportunities available to tops and subs are discussed, and Rodney does his best to avoid pushing a cart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	life brings exactly the lessons you need

“Didn’t you learn better than that in finishing school?” said Ronon, heaving the last sack of grain onto the low cart they’d been loaned. “Checking right under their noses like we don’t trust them.” 

“What on earth makes you think _I_ went to finishing school?” Rodney spluttered, surreptitiously adding his pack to the back of the cart. 

“Zelenka,” Ronon shrugged. “He said that was where you’d learned to yell at people for so long without breathing.” 

“Huh,” said Rodney. “That figures. Listen, subs like John go to finishing school; I went to _university_.” 

“It is not a way of describing the final school that you attended?” said Teyla. “John, in which way are we going to transport this back to the gateship?” 

“Ronon and I can pull,” John said, giving the heavy cart an experimental tug. “You and Rodney had better push.” 

“Actually, I was thinking – now that they’re _out of sight_ – that _maybe_ we could check that this cycle’s merchants were a bit more trustworthy than the last lot were,” said Rodney. “I don’t particularly want to get back to Atlantis with another fine collection of tree stumps and rubble.” 

“If you’d helped load any of the bags, you’d know they were grain,” Ronon said, sitting down on the soft blue-green moss. “Go ahead and check, though.” 

“Just because _I_ happen to have a well-developed sense of – ” 

“I went to college,” John said, more to head off the incipient squabble than because he really felt it was worth mentioning. 

“Explain to me the difference between university and college and finishing school,” said Teyla, pulling John down to sit between her and Ronon. 

“School’s mandatory education for kids, to learn the basics that everybody needs to know,” Rodney began. 

“Hunting and survival techniques?” said Ronon. 

“Trading and self-defence?” said Teyla. 

“Yeah, _no._ More like how to read, write and count,” Rodney said, giving up on checking the sacks and sitting down on top of them. “There’s a limit to how many grades they’ll let you skip, though, even if you’ve got all that mastered long before you even _start_. After you’ve finished school – they _insisted_ I had to wait till I turned fourteen, but most people are around eighteen... uh, that’d be nineteen, twenty Satedan years, or around eight Athosian years – ” 

“So old,” Teyla said softly. 

“No Wraith,” John said with a faintly guilty expression. “And it’s not true everywhere. That’s the idea, yeah, that every kid goes to school until they’re eighteen, but in some parts of Earth very few kids get that far, if they even go to school at all.” 

“ _Anyway_ , smart people then go off to University, to continue their education and take degrees and specialise in a particular field,” Rodney continued. “Those who can’t manage that go to college, and the rest go out to work. But that’s all for tops. Subs leave school a few years earlier, and go to finishing school where they… did you _really_ go to college?” 

“Yeah, I really did,” said John. “Except that I guess you’d call it a university. In Rodney’s part of Earth they have this weird distinction between the two,” he explained to the others. “Where I’m from, they’re pretty much all called colleges. But all commissioned officers have to have a degree. Even subs.” 

“Huh,” Rodney said, looking at him thoughtfully. “So, what, you skipped finishing school? Because that might explain a _lot_ – ” 

“No, I did middle school, finishing school and then college,” said John, looking at his watch. “Come on, let’s check the sacks if we’re going to, and then we ought to get going. We’ve still got to visit Khyrn this afternoon, and it’s a long walk back to the gateship.” 

“So finishing school is an education designed just for subs?” said Teyla, pushing Rodney off the cart and beginning to examine each heavy sack. 

“Yeah,” Rodney said, when John didn’t say anything. “In the cultures John and I are from, most subs don’t have what you might call _careers_. They have jobs, and they work to earn a living, sure, but it’s not considered as fulfilling or important as, uh…” 

“Sex?” Ronon guessed. 

“Hah, well, probably not,” Rodney said with a snort of laughter. “Look, it’s considered okay – even desirable – for a top to be so intent on excelling in their career than they haven’t got much time for anything else. That’s one way to show your dominance: to be the best at what you do. Just think about most of the other tops in the expedition. Not exactly geniuses, but all experts at the cutting edge of their fields, and most of them without thirty seconds’ conversation which _isn’t_ about their work. Most subs are more focused on providing service than in even climbing one rung up the corporate ladder, and they aren’t expected to be in positions of authority or skilled specialist roles. So once they’ve learned the essentials, subs get a different kind of education: one that’s less academic and more practical.” 

“There, I am completely assured that each sack contains nothing but grain,” said Teyla. 

“Okay, everyone ready?” John said, getting to his feet again. “Let’s go, then.” 

“So finishing school’s where you learned how to fight and use a weapon?” said Ronon, as they began to trundle the heavy cart along the stony track. 

“No, that was during the training I did after college, once I’d joined the Air Force,” John said, smiling a little in spite of himself. “I wouldn’t exactly call finishing school _practical_.” 

“Earth people are confusing,” Ronon said. “Sounds like you went to more schools than I’ve been to other worlds.” 

“What exactly do they teach you in this finishing school, if it is both practical and not practical?” Teyla said. “Rodney, every time you stop pushing, the cart slews to the right, and it is very obvious to all three of us.” 

“How to be an obedient, well-trained sub,” John said, before Rodney could start to argue. “How to keep a house. How to manage a budget. How to care for a family. How to cook. I, uh, wasn’t ever much good at that. How to behave properly in different social situations. How to provide service to multiple tops so that all of them feel dominant. How to be a good listener. How to dress and wear jewellery – and makeup, for female subs – to present yourself appealingly. How to sit and stand and move in a way that’s graceful and pleasing for a top to look at. How to – ” 

“Huh,” said Rodney. “I bet you were glad to get to university. Somehow I can’t see you getting hours of fun out of walking round a ballroom with books on your head.” 

“I have a degree in Homemaking Studies,” John said, in the low, soft, pleasant voice that he only failed to adopt when he was too relaxed or happy to remember to suppress its naturally nasal quality. 

“So, what, you _chose_ to continue your doubtless fascinating studies of Advanced Table Manners and Elocution for the Expert?” Rodney said. “Or did you just not have the qualifications to do anything else, and you figured that any education was better than none, whether it was a real degree or not?” 

“Rodney, that is unkind,” Teyla said reprovingly. “John did not choose his dynamic, and it is unfair to judge his choices as inferior simply because they are different from your own.” 

“I didn’t actually pick Homemaking Studies,” John said at last, once they’d manhandled the cart up and over the first hill. “When I applied, I put on the form I was a top. I was going to study Aerospace Engineering, and y’know, maybe I might have been able to learn to fly.” 

“Not suitable for subs?” said Ronon, his expression making clear what he thought about the strange ways of Earth people. 

“Yeah, they found me out before I’d even got to the end of the interview,” John said. “Even if they hadn’t, I’d never have been able to keep up the pretence for long. And the Air Force will only put you through college if you major in the subjects they need people trained in. So I had to take Homemaking Studies, but I did get to do a minor in Pure Math. I was the only sub on the course, and it was great. The other students kind of adopted me as class sub, and it was like having twenty-four tops all of my own. I’ve probably never been petted so much in my _entire life_.” 

“Please tell me you actually did some learning too,” Rodney said, one eyebrow raised. 

“Of course,” said John. “They were the best classes I took. And there was always someone who wanted to study with me, and plenty of people to speak to the professors when I had questions.” 

“Why couldn’t you just stick your hand up in class or shout out like – yes, okay, right, _sub_ ,” Rodney said, putting his hands back on the cart as Teyla shot a look at him. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but sometimes I actually forget what your dynamic is?” 

“You don’t think I'm submissive enough?” John said quietly. 

“No, of _course_ I do, you’re beautifully submissive,” Rodney said. “You’re just not much like – it’s just that – you’re offering _leadership_ as a form of service, and – it’s a _good_ thing, okay? We’re all a bit out of the ordinary. I’m a genius, Ronon’s _Ronon_ , and Teyla’s amazing.” 

“Thank you for the compliment, Rodney,” Teyla said sweetly. “It does not mean you can stop pushing the cart.” 

“ _Why_ couldn’t we have parked the gateship closer?” Rodney moaned. “Or had John go back to pick it up, instead of pushing this ridiculous first-century contraption up and down every hill on the planet – ” 

“Captain Ford told us that the Vanitt don’t allow any Ancient technology within three and a quarter miles of their city,” John said. “They believe it’ll attract the Wraith.” 

“Yeah, well, it _won’t_!” Rodney said. 

“You know of a better place where grain’s in season right now?” said Ronon. “Be a shame not to have any bread for a while.” 

“I’m just saying, the gateship has a _cloak_ , and what the Vanitt don’t know – ” 

“Oh look, there’s where we parked,” John said gratefully. “Rodney, you’ve got the remote. Can you go and check there’s enough space in the back for all of this, please, while we start unloading? Teyla, did the cycle merchant say what we should do with the cart afterwards? I can take it back if – ” 

“There is no need,” Teyla assured him. “A trading party will be returning through the gate this afternoon. The cart will then be available for them to transport their packages back to the city.” 

“Everybody got everything we came with?” John said, once the gateship was loaded. Rodney had once left one of his laptops at the Great Llamboan Market, and they’d had to rush back two and half hours later, only to find it still sitting, untouched, in the booth where they’d sipped neeva berry wine while talking their way through the elaborate ritual of Llamboan trade negotiations. Colonel Lorne had put John on night duty for three weeks, and it had been four months before he’d been trusted to go offworld again without a military top’s supervision. 

“Yeah, we’re good to go,” said Ronon. “Should be time to get lunch in the city before we have to head out to Khyrn.” 

“Okay, Teyla, could you dial the gate, please? Good job, everyone. Let’s go home.” 

“Hey, you know what?” Rodney said suddenly. “Maybe the gateships aren’t exactly planes, but you do get to fly after all, and you do it _with your mind_. That’s got to beat anything the Air Force could have offered you, right?” 

John turned round and grinned at him. It wasn’t the beautiful social smile he wore so frequently, but an ear-to-ear beam with nothing at all finished about its pure joy. 

And if the gateship did a roll before entering the gate, no one mentioned it. 


End file.
